There!
✦ ✦ ✦
Acting on pure instinct, I threw myself into the darkness, grabbed what I could of the rift—and yanked it open.
I felt something rip. Likely the barrier Tia had been blocking the Space Magic with—I should have been more delicate.
Regrets aside, I could see beyond the rift now.
There was someone beyond that Warped space. A sickly looking beastfolk in a filthy robe. The “Warp” was too intense to make out the species, but half their face was festering and unsightly. They’d yet to perceive me.
“Is that our crook?”
“Looks like—but I don’t know him.”
Tia and Roro were peering over my shoulder.
Lulu aimed her Fireburst Gun at the beastfolk’s face.
“The curse of the Dark Lord of Necromancy does not work?! Hng?!”
Mid-mutter, they finally spotted us.
I was forcing the rift wider, and the visual grew clearer.
“You linked a channel through the curse, boy? So you’re the one who reversed my curse!”
One hand on his festering face, he shot me a look of unbridled fury.
Ah, his hideous visage was backlash from the curse. I hadn’t felt much, but it had worked a bit.
“If the space is linked, I need not use underhanded means!”
Several dark red swirls appeared before the beastfolk’s eyes.
I had a bad feeling about those.
“Behold the true power of a demon summoner!”
A demon summoner?
That term caught my attention, but there was no time to pursue it.
Bark-type demons were emerging from the whirls and flying toward us through the space I was holding open.
“Lulu.”
“Shooting them down!”
Lulu’s Fireburst Gun began spitting fire, wiping out the demons before they could make it through the whirl.
But a little butterfly demon slipped through the machine-gun fire.
Psychic Magic.
An intermediate demon, small, but with a nasty skill.
I made a “Spellblade” on my fingertips and sliced through it.
YMTTTTHYUMEEE!
✦ ✦ ✦
> Skill Acquired: “Resisted Confusion Spell”
✦ ✦ ✦
The log window in the corner of my eye showed that message.
It had cast just before I defeated it.
“Mwa-ha-ha! Kill each other! A fitting end for that vile sorceress!”
Beyond the “Warp” in space, the beastfolk let out an ugly chortle.
Sucks to be him, but that Psychic Magic only worked on the hamsters. I’d resisted it, and my companions all had anti-Psychic measures stemming from their golden armor. Tia and Roro were kept safe by something the Great Sorceress had made—likely the Crown of Thorns.
“Roro, oh no!”
“Roro, look tasty!”
“Roro, broccoli!”
“What’s wrong?”
I heard a vase shatter.
It seems the hamsters had mistaken a vase for broccoli and broken it.
Roro could handle them. I kept my focus on our villain.
“Why? Why are you unaffected? That was an intermediate demon’s spell!” he roared, seeing no one but the powerless hamsters confused.
“Master, I’ve grasped the ‘Warp’ space. I can open a Gate to the other side, if only for an instant.”
That’s my Arisa. Not only fending off the darkness, she’d also prepped a way to take the fight back.
“Tia, we’re gonna flip their spell and go in fighting. You got things handled here?”
I was using “Ventriloquism” to whisper in her ear.
“Madness!” she hissed.
At that volume, she wouldn’t be overheard.
“Only a lunatic would throw themselves into a domain under a villain’s control!”
“Satou, don’t! Lulu, stop him!” Roro cried.
“No, Roro. He’ll be fine. If he’s working with us, nothing can stop him.”
“……Lulu.”
Lulu’s utter faith in me persuaded Roro.
They seemed fine, so I called back the mice demon hunters over Tactical Talk.
“Cake.”
“Tasty.”
“Gimme.”
I couldn’t see behind me, but the hamsters seemed to be acting normal.
Or were they?
Weren’t they confused?
“Ack! Don’t!”
“Roro, don’t steal.”
“Roro, don’t hog!”
“Roro, give back.”
“I said no!”
The hint of panic in her voice made me start to turn, but Arisa yelped, “Master, eyes front!”
I looked back and saw the beastfolk transforming a tree stump thing into a kind of cannon. Just like the one the greater bark demon had used—if not quite as large.
“Oh, shit—”
Light gathered, and it was ready to fire in a flash.
“Phalanx.”
I used the “Quick Change” skill to equip the bracelet-type Phalanx I’d been testing in the Azure Land, deploying it inside the Warped space.
That alone still stood a risk of being shattered, so I also layered thirty-two Flexible Shields in front of it.
There was a flash and a howl.
I’d blocked that easier than expected—it might look imposing, but this was clearly nowhere near as strong as the greater demon’s.
I felt like I heard the beastfolk screaming through the cannon’s roar, but I was probably imagining it.
“Roro!”
“Roro!”
Lulu and Tia were screaming.
I glanced back and saw Roro covered in blood, with the hamsters sobbing.
She had a cut on her cheek—a pretty nasty gash. It might well leave a scar.
“Arisa!”
I took a greater potion out of Storage right in front of her.
“Roro, drink this!” she said, popping the cork. She dribbled some of the potion on the wound and poured the rest down Roro’s mouth.
The wound was gone before she even swallowed. She was a teenage girl, so I’d been ready to throw an elixir at her if there was any risk of scarring.
“Roro, sorry.”
“Roro, forgive.”
“Roro, pain?”
“It’s okay, kids.”
The shock of hurting her seemed to have freed the hamsters from Confusion.
I’d just noticed the shards of broken vase at their feet—there was blood on them. They’d mistaken those for cake, and Roro had tried to take them away and gotten hurt in the chaos.
“Satou, behind you!”
I was still holding that space open, and a vine spear was going straight for my heart. Aiming for the gap in the shields that had blocked the cannon’s fire.
Both hands were full, but that posed no problem.
Why? Because—
“‘Blink—Helix Spear Attack—Pile On.’”
Liza came in the window, stabbing the vine over my shoulder with a multi-hit “Thrust.”
“Thanks, Liza.”
“I’m glad I made it in time.”
She seemed quite proud of herself, but her eyes were locked on the other side.
“We’re late, sir!”
“Shaaame!”
Pochi came in the window, and Tama emerged from the shadows under the bed.
“Larvae!” Nana’s voice sounded rather different. “Who made these larvae cry, I demand?”
She was genuinely angry.
“The same villain behind this whole incident,” Arisa said.
“Master, we must dispatch them forthwith, I request.”
Nana was usually expressionless, but right now, her eyes were on fire.
“Tia, there you have it. Be right back!”
“Gotcha. I’ll look after Roro.”
“Satou…,” she said, staring at me.
“We’ll be fine, Roro. Tia, can you hold this whirl a moment?”
“Sure, no problem.”
She cast a spell I didn’t recognize, fixing the whirl in place.
Apparently, that magic was a core part of what allowed the fortress city to occupy a space within the Jungle Labyrinth.
“We’re off!” I told Roro, again.
She didn’t try to stop me but still looked worried.
“Roro, they’ll be just fine. Right, Satou?”
“You betcha.” I nodded.
“All right, then. Come back soon. Don’t get hurt!”
“We won’t. We’re the untouchable Pendragons.”
We would come back unharmed.
✦ ✦ ✦
